Kaigin Guide

Hello and welcome to my guide to Kaigin, the Warpstalker! This is my first full-length guide, and feedback is most welcome. Hopefully this helps you play a great freelancer at a high level.

First, some background. I have been playing Atlas Reactor since late March, so about 3 months. I am currently #3 Contender on the SoloQ ladder and fully intend to finish #1 this season. I also play in PPL on Team Midnight (and we have played Kaigin this season). Kaigin was my first “main” in Atlas Reactor, and is my highest level freelancer at 25. I have approximately a 65% winrate on him, mostly in ranked (PvP winrate is higher), over about 200 games.

The above are simply the in-game assessments. I think they are generally correct, though they do not list “elusive” as an attribute (as survival is more about healing, mitigation, etc.). But of course, the best way to survive is to not take damage, and the best way to not take damage is to not be there…

People refer to Kaigin as a ninja, but he is really an assassin. There are three key points to playing Kaigin:

Sticking on your target.

Avoiding damage.

Planning your turns.

Kaigin likes to get alone with a target and hit them repeatedly. He can also play a hit-and-run style if needed. Kaigin’s best matchups are against squishy firepowers or supports, and he struggles against tanks and Grey. His best maps are, in my opinion, Cloudspire, EvoS and Flyway. His worst are Omni Reactor Core (though let’s be honest, that map is rough for many freelancers) and Hyperforge. Omni Core is rough because there isn’t a lot of space to get isolated with someone, and a lot of walls block your shurikens. Hyperforge is rough because the open space in the middle is very vulnerable and Kaigin lacks the range to take advantage of it. He can do well in a 1v1 in one of the back alleyways on the map, but otherwise struggles to get a target alone somewhere he can safely fight them.

2. Abilities and Mods.

Kaigin has 125 maximum hit points. His damaging attacks (1, 2, 3 and 5) apply “Void Mark” to the target for the next round (only). Attacking a target that has Void Mark will deal 10 bonus damage. This bonus is affected by might / weaken but not by cover.

I am listing only the abilities below and am providing a general discussion of the mods for that ability. For brevity, I am not listing the mods themselves — you can see them, however, at the following link: Kaigin Mods

1 — Twisting Blades.

Attacks enemies in a three-quarter circle, dealing 32 damage to the center section and 16 damage to the sides. (36 and 12 respectively with Focused Assault.) Gain 12 energy for the first target hit, and an another 4 for each additional target. No cooldown.

Notes: Range of 2. (That is, a circle of radius 2.)

As I’ll discuss later, you want to use this ability whenever you can do so SAFELY. It’s hard to actually get many of these off given Kaigin’s low health pool and lack of mitigation.

Focused Assault is the only really good mod to run on this ability. If you’re melee attacking someone, you aim where they are. It’s rare on someone like Kaigin to have multiple targets in different parts of the cone — sure, it happens, but it’s not what you’re focused on. You’re not Asana; you don’t stand in the middle of multiple enemies (typically). So you don’t really care about, say, the size of the frontal code or the damage dealt to side targets. As a result of Kaigin having relatively few opportunities to melee, I’ve considered dropping this mod, but his mods on other abilities aren’t really good enough to justify it.

2 — Razor Tempest.

Throws three shurikens that each deal 20 damage. Multiple hits on the same target deal only 5 additional damage. Gain 8 energy for hitting one shuriken, plus 2 for each other one that hits. Cooldown: 1.

Notes: Range of 7. Max angle of (I think) 120 degrees on the spread. The hit box of a shuriken is about a square, so you can hit 2 adjacent squares if you aim between them.

This ability is Kaigin’s bread and butter, dealing fairly good damage from range, but you only have it every other round. Plan accordingly.

Stalker’s Mark is the only really good option on 2. Not only is Stalker’s Mark good against invisible targets (Nix, your favorite prey), but it also gives you vision for next turn if the target pops into brush, as you need to be able to see them if you want to dash on them.

Unyielding is also OK, because often you’ll be spreading out your shurikens to hit 2 targets but you won’t be able to hit 3 and you don’t want to lose out on the energy. Also cheap at 1 point.

The reason we don’t take Flurry of Knives is because we don’t miss our shurikens. Sure, it occasionally lets you take a guess or gives you options if your target dashes, but Kaigin needs to know his moves in advance and you can’t have uncertainty like that clouding your future. Plus, Kaigin is about consistent pressure. If you are missing your shurikens, you are neither triggering nor applying Void Mark. That’s very bad.

The reason we don’t take Honed Edge is because it’s relatively rare that we have (a) a void marked target that (b) is behind cover, and it’s expensive at three points.

The reason we don’t take Void Empowered is…well, I used to run this mod way back when. And I thought I was pretty clever, because wow if you spread out the shurikens on 3 targets that’s 75 damage holy moly! But realistically, it’s relatively rare that you can hit multiple targets with shurikens in the first place, and if you can, you already have a really good turn. 60 damage is still excellent. Plus, and I see the rare Kaigin that runs this mod make this mistake all the time, you can’t just spread out your shurikens to cover more space if you’re only planning to hit one target “just in case.” That’d be nice, right? But you miss out on 4 energy! That’s right, you still only get 8 energy for the first hit, so you may as well hit the target with all 3 to get your 12 energy. So that’s not great. And I’ve been in situations where I actually really need 30 damage on a single target and I can only do 25. So overall I think this mod is not that great, especially at three points.

3 — Void Strike.

Dash to an enemy, dealing them 32 damage and landing on a square of your choice adjacent to them. Cooldown: 4.

Notes: Range of 7. Dash is vertical, meaning it will avoid traps. Damage is unaffected by cover. You can move (4 squares or 6 with haste) after dashing. This ability must target an enemy; if no enemy is in range, you cannot use it. You also need vision of the target to use this ability.

Kaigin’s dash is probably his best ability. It dodges traps, deals damage, lets you choose exactly where you land, and lets you move afterward. This is why Kaigin is a good character, honestly — if he didn’t have this ability, he’d kind of suck. Note that if you don’t have it up, enemies will focus you much more.

The dash mods are all fairly decent. Damage, weaken, haste, range. I don’t have a strong leaning here, but I favor Elusive, if you can spare 2 points, for the flexibility it gives you with movement, whether that’s chasing a speedy target, stealing a powerup, or getting into an uncertain spot in brush. The range mod (Through the Void) would be significantly better if the target did not need to be Void Marked. You often want to dash a target that’s far away, but only rarely is it a target you hit last turn. However, 8 range is a lot better than 7 so I may give this mod some further consideration.

4 — Shadowstalker.

Drop a smoke bomb at your location that obscures enemy vision until the end of next turn. Gain invisibility until the end of next decision phase. Gain 8 energy on cast. Cooldown: 6.

Notes: Free action. Smoke bomb is a 3×3 square. Shadowstalker takes effect during the BLAST phase, meaning it will occur after you have dashed.

Very important ability. Very long cooldown.

The options on your smoke are also fairly decent, but nothing essential. Cover of Night is what I used to run — good if you’re opening with invis. Soothing Shadows is a bit situational — you don’t necessarily want to stay in your cloud, plus if the enemies realize you’re running it, they’ll AoE your cloud. Thick Smoke, Suffocation and Preparation are all fairly good — more discussion about that below when I explain the builds.

5 — Spectre of Death.

Teleport to a location, dealing 50 damage to any nearby enemy. The damage dealt is reduced by 10 for each enemy after the first. No cooldown; costs 100 energy.

Notes: Range of 6, AoE of 2 (that is, a circle of radius 2). Dash is vertical, meaning it will avoid traps. You do not need vision of the enemy to use this ability; indeed, you can use it on an area without enemies if absolutely needed. Damage dealt ignores cover. You can move after using this ability.

For mods, Phantasmal Fury is what I used to run — very nice if you can get a multi-person ultimate. But that’s kind of rare. I’ve moved to Eclipse now for the elusiveness it offers, though I do find I often want to use my ultimate around the same time as my stealth is up anyway, thereby negating the value of the reset. I also have started to try Master Assassin against targets like Nix.

One other note — here’s how Eclipse works (and it’s a bit disappointing): The reset on Shadowstalker happens as soon as you dash, during dash phase. That makes sense, right? But what that means is, it does NOT happen BEFORE THE TURN, DURING DECISION PHASE (meaning if Shadowstalker is on cooldown, you can’t use it during the ult turn!). And it also happens BEFORE BLAST PHASE. That means if Shadowstalker was OFF cooldown and you used it that turn, the reset did NOTHING for you — you’ll use Shadowstalker during Blast Phase and it will go on cooldown!!!

Finally — the range on this ability is only 6, even though it may seem farther. Of course, that’s just for where you land. You hit targets in a radius-2 circle around you, so technically you can hit enemies as far away as 8 units.

3. General Play:

The first thing you want to do is identify a target. A squishy firepower, especially someone without escapes like Nix, or a support is typically a good choice. You want to be alone with this character if possible. Kaigin outdamages basically anyone in a 1v1 because of void mark. So you want to make sure you can continually output damage on the target.

Additionally, you want to use your multiple dashes and invisibility to avoid damage and keep enemies guessing. Kaigin is very high-risk and high-reward. If you guess wrong for a turn or get caught out, you will die very quickly. If you are playing properly, you should take very little damage.

Note that Kaigin has a ranged attack at most every other turn and very little CC. That means you need to be thinking ahead to figure out ways to stick on your target. You also need to think carefully about when you throw shurikens. If you throw them on a given turn, you will NOT have them up next turn, meaning you must either (1) melee attack (requiring you to be in range of a target), (2) use dash or ult, (3) sprint (possibly with second wind or Shadowstalker).

As a result of the above (being squishy, not having CC), it’s actually somewhat rare that you get an opportunity to melee attack safely. If you have one, it’s usually best to take it, and keep your cooldowns up another round. Kaigin’s melee attack is high-damage — 36 if you take Focused Assault, and potentially 46 if the target is void-marked.

Although Kaigin likes to stick on a single target to gain maximum benefit from Void Mark, it may not be possible to do so for a variety of reasons. (These include: Target dashed away or went invisible, target is receiving shields, target is in an area where hitting them would expose Kaigin to danger, target has an offensive or defensive cooldown up that Kaigin would rather not deal with.) So, use your dash and ultimate to quickly change targets and get across the map. It’s even better if you can use Shurikens to hit both the current target and the new target on the turn before switching, so as to continue the Void Mark chain, but this is not always possible.

Additionally, you may need to disengage. Your shurikens are only up every other turn, and your dash + invis are long cooldowns. If you don’t have dash / invis / ult available, you need to play safer. Although you should generally try to be doing damage every turn on firepower characters, it is OK to take a couple of turns and be safe, perhaps pick up a few powerups, while your cooldowns come back up. Ideally you can at least throw shurikens every other turn while waiting. My builds below try to minimize this “down time” but it happens. There’s no need to force yourself into an aggressive position if you don’t have your resources available — you’ll probably take damage and either die, get so low that you can’t do your job effectively, or be forced to use your Catalyst. Of course, this also depends on your support — more on that in the Friends and Foes section.

4. Builds:

Okay, with the above in mind, here are the builds I like to use on Kaigin.

Variants: Thick Smoke or Suffocation on Shadowstalker instead of Elusive on Void Strike. Chronosurge or Adrenaline instead of Probe.

This is probably my most basic loadout and the most reliable way to play Kaigin. Focused Assault adds damage to your 1, Stalker’s Mark lets you keep track of targets, Elusive lets you get around the map a bit better, and Eclipse helps you stay elusive.

Second Wind is taken because you will take a bit of damage, and because Flyway has quite a bit of space (so you may have a sprint turn or two or three) and quite a few health powerups. So you can run off to a powerup while Second Winding and regain 60 hit points while your cooldowns come back up.

Probe, Chronosurge and Adrenaline are all fairly good and all work well in pretty much all of my Kaigin builds. Probe is good because vision is just good generally, and specifically because you need to see targets in brush if you want to dash them. Chronosurge is nice in combination with your dash, especially if you aren’t running Elusive. And Adrenaline is good against any kind of roots or knockbacks.

There is not much in the way of a specific strategy to using this build — it is fairly general and fairly flexible. Do damage where you can. Disengage where you can. Improvise where you can. You can use this build on other maps as well, not just Flyway.

Instead of making a new build, I’m adding it as an alternate here: Phantasmal Fury instead of Eclipse, and use the extra point for Cover of Night or Soothing Shadows. This build is good when you expect enemies to be clumped such that you are hitting multiple people with your ult (e.g. Cloudspire).

This build revolves around a tight ability rotation. The idea is that you want to weave your other abilities in around your shurikens (and you can do 2 shuriken turns in a row with Brain Juice). Obviously the exact rotation shown below is not going to be feasible all the time, both because the situations involving your team and the enemy team vary between games and also because you don’t want to be 100% predictable, but the rotation below is a general guide to how you should play it.

And so on. The first 10 turns can really establish a lead for you, so it’s OK if you don’t have quite as tight a rotation thereafter (due to having to wait on second ult and not having Brain Juice).

You’ll note that none of these turns present significant risk to Kaigin. The only time we use Twisting Blades is from stealth. Obviously, if circumstances dictate that we can use it safely at other points in the rotation, that’s great.

Note that we don’t have Second Wind to heal, and we don’t have Elusive on our dash (but can use Chronosurge in a pinch). I like Thick Smoke for vision obscuring, but you may find other mods helpful to you as well. You’ll note that the mods aren’t super different from the first build, but the catalysts somewhat are.

I also like Fetter in this build to stay aggressive — if we continue our sample rotation below:

Obviously you don’t want to just randomly Fetter on 12, but perhaps the circumstances dictate that we’re in a dangerous spot and could dodge some damage here. Fetter dodges the damage and roots a target so we can melee it (hopefully we got it isolated so we aren’t in too much danger the following turn now that we blew our cata!), AND it deals 20 damage. 20? Yes, 20. Fetter doesn’t apply Void Mark, but it WILL trigger Void Mark. That’s a pretty decent deal.

As you can probably tell, this build relies on safe play and not taking any damage. We could run Fade but maybe we don’t, and we don’t run Brain Juice. Simply put, if we mess up, we probably die. Dying once over the course of the entire game is permissible, though zero is better. Dying twice is very bad and should not happen. But we aren’t playing Kaigin because we want to tank damage or heal, now are we? Nope, we are not.

Ooh, baby, this is the special energy build. First, note the mods. We take Unyielding for consistency on shuriken (we want that 12 energy every time we hit), and we take Preparation to gain Energized after we use Shadowstalker. We also take Regenergy as a prep phase catalyst.

Now, time for some math, with a sample rotation and your total energy at the beginning of the turn in [brackets] (remember that you gain 5 energy per turn, starting at the end of Turn 1 / beginning of Turn 2):

Oh hey, we got a Turn 7 ult. The rotation may vary (and you may gain extra energy if your Twisting Blades hits multiple targets), but assuming you (1) hit enemies every turn, (2) used Regenergy on the same turn as Shadowstalker, and (3) have Prep as your Shadowstalker mod, you’ll have your ult by Turn 7.

This is huge. You can put out a lot of early pressure with this. It’s very common for enemies with dashes to have used them by Turn 7, and forcing out a Turn 7 catalyst is extremely strong (not that we want enemies to dash or catalyst when we ult). Even the threat of the ult may make enemies play sub-optimally, waste dashes, or refuse to focus us, so we aren’t REQUIRED to use it. But very likely we can get an ult to land on someone on Turn 7.

And, of course, that resets Shadowstalker. So, we could continue the rotation:

And so on. This adds extreme frontloaded power to our early turns, provided we are able to hit our abilities. (This build works best against teams with immobile targets to guarantee we get the energy!)

5. Map-specific Strategies

Flyway Freighter

Open safe. Hug the far left or the far right, or go middle behind the big wall. Turn two, you can either stealth and run into a dangerous spot to try to find the enemy team, provide vision, and get off a melee attack early, or else stick to the sides and try to flank around to find them. Dash if you get in trouble. Dash + Stealth if it’s a lot of trouble.

In general, Flyway is nice because there’s a lot of open space. Meaning people spread out and you can get a target alone. Best if they didn’t see it coming, which is why we flank around the sides or use stealth to get into position.

After you’ve taken out an enemy, loop around to a health powerup and rejoin your team while your cooldowns come back up. You should be relatively high health at this point and able to pick off some low-hp enemies or exert pressure.

Omni Reactor Core

Open safe. Hug the far left or the far right, and try to flank around to find the enemy team. I like Thick Smoke on this map, as there are a lot of choke points. Try to use your smoke bomb in one of those choke points to block enemy vision, then stealth towards your prey. I find it very hard to do damage safely on this map, so you might also try the Energy build and just play so aggressive early with dashes that you don’t have to worry about falling into a weird pattern with your Razor Tempest.

Cloudspire

Open safe. (See a pattern?) Hug the far left or the far right, and try to flank around to find the enemy team. I often run the Energy build on this map, as it’s small and you’re quick to find targets. If you can, use your smoke bomb or dash to secure the health powerup on the side you’re playing on. Getting isolated is relatively easy despite the map’s small size, as there are lots of back corridors where you can be relatively safe.

EvoS Lab

Open safe. Hug the far left or the far right, or go middle and hide behind the wall. From here, you can either stealth and run in deep for vision and to try to find the enemy team, or just stick to the shadows. It’s OK to have a couple of turns of sprinting early if it means you’ll get into a good position to pick someone off. As with the other maps, target selection is important. It’s OK to wait for the fight to develop and find a weak point to exploit.

Hyperforge

I don’t really play Kaigin on Hyperforge, so I’ll get back to you.

6. Invisibility / Vision Discussion

My tips on vision are fairly general — it’s good to provide it. Typically that’s the frontliner’s job, but you can do it a little bit as Kaigin because you have stealth to get in deep, and a dash (plus movement!) if things get hairy.

You can also block vision with Smoke Bomb. It’s best to place it at a choke point, so enemies can’t see through it. On Omni Reactor Core, the area around the heal powerup is good, also the midpoint of the C-shaped brush on each side of the map where the wall juts out. On Cloudspire, near the 2×1 wall by the heal powerup. On EvoS Lab, around the sides of the map, especially near the giant fish tank.

Enemies also can’t see you if you’re in the smoke bomb (and ditto for your allies), unless an enemy is as well. Keep this in mind.

Now, Kaigin’s invisibility only makes you invisible until the end of the following DECISION PHASE. This means that the enemy knows where you used Smoke Bomb, and, assuming you don’t have haste and didn’t sprint, knows you can be at most only 4 squares away from that location. (Be careful not to get rooted that turn!) However, they do not get to see your movement, and they cannot see you while locking in their moves the next turn. After that, you are visible! (Contrast with Nix, whose invisibility lasts for the entirety of that next turn and obscures his movement that next turn as well.)

Below is a list of Reveal effects in the game, split into two categories (powerful, medium and weak). Medium and Weak are the same in terms of the power of the effect, but Medium’s are BASELINE whereas Weak requires a SPECIFIC MOD (so check to see if they’re running it!) In general, the Powerful ones are the ones to be really afraid of.

Grey’s two effects and PuP’s (and Finn’s) last through the following turn. That means if they were applied to you last turn, you can’t use Shadowstalker this turn! (I mean, you can, but you’ll still be revealed.) The others listed here are Prep Phase, which means you can’t dash to dodge them! Juno’s Lockdown doesn’t always reveal (though she can mod it with Floodlights), but will still show your position if you move more than 3 squares and take the damage from it.

Grey in particular is very scary because her Hawk Drone may attack invis if she has the mod, plus any attack on you will automatically track you, AND she has a prep phase reveal which means she can reveal (and weaken and often slow) you BEFORE you dash, whereas many other reveal effects are Blast Phase and can be dodged with a dash (after which you could use Shadowstalker safely).

Helio — Jump on in with that Black Hole to guarantee perfect placement, or turn yourself into a killing machine with Battleforged. Really great synergy here. Plus, Kaigin often knows exactly which turns he might take damage, which synergizes well with Helio’s proactive shields. Communication is key, of course.

Aurora — Healing Flare delivered to your enemies with a Void Strike for an easy knockback in whatever direction you choose.

Orion — Need to expose yourself for a turn to get a big melee attack in, or accidentally get revealed? Orion’s there for you with a Fate Transfer.

Su-Ren — dash squad, go! Plus her ult plays nice with Kaigin, too.

Dr. Finn — you can go in deep with a Bubble for a slow or root, and if the Finn takes That’s-A-Moray, you can get some extra energy while you deliver eels directly to the enemy.

Grey — hate to play against her, so what better strategy than having her on your team? The synergy is there, though. Grey’s excellent reveal capabilities enable Kaigin to have flexible dash targets, and she can help keep his prey from escaping.

Asana — in too deep? Here comes Asana with the ult. Maybe you stealthed in? Here comes Asana with the surprise ult! She can also root targets to help you finish them off.

Titus — I just think his dagger is great. Reveals the enemy before they dash or Fade, allowing you to easily go clean them up with the bonus damage the following turn when they have nothing.

Celeste — Smoke bomb synergy, anyone? You can block out a decent chunk of the map working together. Plus, Kaigin isn’t great at securing those early powerups because he’s busy sneaking around to flank, so Celeste can nab them away from your enemies.

Khita — you’re often doing your own thing, and can’t necessarily spare the ranged attack to hit a Take Aim! target. Needs a lot of coordination.

Nix — nothing wrong with this, but you need a good frontline + support combination to support two sneaky firepowers who are kind of doing their best not to be seen. And of course you get counterpicked by some of the same things.

Oz — how much milk does it take to lose a game? 1 oz.

Fearsome Enemies

Grey — this girl has reveals for days and can go toe-to-toe with you in a 1v1.

PuP — in addition to his reveals, PuP is simply a fantastic duelist and will defeat you 1v1.

Titus — this bad boy hits hard and can ult you just about anywhere near your smoke bomb. Especially watch out for that dagger!

Dr. Finn — eels reveal you, Bubble Trap can root you (check if he’s running this mod before you jump on him!). Once his bubble is down, though, he’s free sushi.

Asana — Watchful Defense is a huge pain, plus she fights hard. Best to kite her — but Razor Tempest isn’t up as often as you’d like for that.

Elle — she has a lot of rolls, which can make your dash and ult miss. She’s fairly strong in close combat, but also outranges you. If you’re winning against her she can often simply Overcharge and sprint away.

Helio — watch out for his ult, mainly. Other than that, he’s a great kill target.

Favorite Prey

Nix — yum yum yum reveal him with Stalker’s Mark and eat him. He is squishy, has no dash, and can’t keep pace with your damage in a 1v1. The trick is finding him…I recommend Probe.

Aurora — this girl is just delicious, but watch out for her Healing Flare knocking you back if you dash to her.

Quark — if he tethers your teammate / frontliner, there’s really nothing he can do to you, so go to town and focus him down.

Orion — Orion excels at protecting others, but can have trouble protecting himself. No dash. If you manage to avoid his Quantum Core, the best he can do is ult himself before dying.

Blackburn — His dash is scary, but once he uses it, he’s free food. He can’t go toe to toe with you, even with his stim.

Okay, that’s the guide, folks!

Hope you enjoyed! Go hunt down some enemies. And please leave a message with your feedback here, or find me on Atlas Reactor: Tiggarius#0932. And watch me stream on www.twitch.tv/tiggarius — we may have a Kaigin marathon soon!